Blind thrust fault scarp at El Asnam, Algeria

H.C. Shah Stanford University

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The fault scarp from the earthquake of October 10, 1980, at El Asnam, Algeria, shows a 3-m vertical offset on a blind thrust fault. The movement along this fault results from compression. When the thrust layers encounter opposition at depth, they are forced up vertically, producing a vertical scarp. The scarp extends for kilometers along the landscape of El Asnam. This 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed 5,000 people and caused severe damage.